New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-01-24
NOTES ON BOOKS.
TIE NEW AMPrrON-MR. ANDREW LANG
u1 pAnI, o I OILS SCEXENSON.

iYxcu rur pycuLAn CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIpcSk>
London Jan. o.
A cu,ious little volume has lately appeared in
Edinburgh douglas publisber) under the ntle
"rbc New Amphion' being" the title
page proceeds to tell us, "the Book Of the Edin-
buuh University Union Fancy Fair, In which
are contained sundry artisticll, instructive and
diverting matters, all now made publck for the
first time" You will, l hope, think that some
of these matters now made pubck for the first
time deserve the ranegyric bestowed on them by
their editors. But it must first be explained that
the Fancy Fair and this fancy Book had both
for their object to find sufficient moneys for the
raising OF building meet for the wants and uses
of the new Union which the students the Edin
bursh University desired TO build for themselves
The ladies of Scotland gave these young fellows
kindly lift and it is to the labor, rs thcy say
OF countless fair hands that the students VIII De
beholdcn for their new edifice. wishing In thelr
turn to help the ladies who were helping thcm'
the Committee sighed for new Amphion such as
he who raised the walls Of Thebes by the music
of his lyre. So they applied to various persons
of fame in letters and in art, and this book Is
the result They have printed it in the ancient
manner with fabricated pages, and bound IL in
white vellem fooled and gilt to dainty pattern;
the edges of an orange tint more ancient than
the days when good taste in such matters began
first to prevail; the whole tied over the fire
edges with sage-Sreen strings.
First of the contributors is no less poet than
MIR Robert Browning,
Professor John Stuart Blackie is the most
cOlfous contributor of all, but fear can hardly
nsk YOU to print much Of Professor John Stuart
Blac1ie's fluctuations, whether in verse, as they
mostly are, or in prose. One entire article, how
ever, I will quote, and the title OF II is Carlyle;
Carlyle is strong to rouse by tremendous
moral force, and to startle by vivid and striking
pictures but he has neither wisdom TO guide
those whom he has rouscd nor sobrlety to tone
his pictures down TO reality. lie is fond of talk
ing about veracity but he habitually reNcls in
exaggeraton. and One-sided presentation. which is
moro than half a lie.
The portrait facing this little squirt OF dislike
leads one to SUPPOSE that it is the late Mr.
Thomas Carlyle, writer Of books, who has reused
the antipathy OF Professor, rather emeritus
Professor James Stuart BaclSie. 1t cannot be
said of Mr.. Blackie that he is amusing even
when in q temper. But envy not the man who
can read Mr.. Andrew Lang's short sermon on
The Dog without hearty laughter. A certain
lassitude which is wont to follow upon such
laughter indisposcs to copy out the whole of
this Just invective upon the canine race, and
! fear you might not find room for it. But there
must be extract from an essay destined,
doubt not, to modify the relations between the
biographical character.
IL am acquainted says Mr.. Lang, "with n
doc so eager for excitement and display that he
rOams from room to room, making every one
olen the door for him till he finds what he con-
siders the best society in the house. Then he
sits down on the fender and uses the most shock
Ing and abrupt language when any one treads on
his toes which, Of course, frequently occurs. His
yells resemble railway steam whistle carried to |
the highest power. OF course he expects all the |
lcgs of grouse, and whatever else Is going and he
whincs and yclps till he gets what he wants |
There is not one Of the seven deadly sins Of
which this dog is not habitr&iiy guilty, and | am |
unaware of s;Syie redeemng feature in his re-
pulsire character Yet he is adored by the people |
he owns with an affection which they do not
bestow on one whom consider eminently more
deserving"
This is no fancy sketch: it is the wall OF one
who has long suffered under a real grievance and
II cannot in such circumstances be made a re-
proach to Mr.. Lang that he should have disclosed
to a sympathetic public the miseries OF his
domestic fireside. i have but one quarrel with
Mr. Lang. lie should have written pendant
to this piece and told us. as / am sure he would.
of those qualities and Virtues and cndcarins traits
hy which The Cat is pre- eminently distin-
guished above, not the dog merely, but all other
animals except the human and most of them.
And yet perhaps the nobler animal is sufficiently
vndicated and avenged when his enemy hath been
reduced to his true Place in the social scale.
OF other songsteYs and prCsaists there many
whose voices help fill this volume, but one more
only will l mention Mr.. Robert Louis Steven
son, who fifty closes 1t with some College |
Memories Ii is Of those delicately favored |
essays Of which Mr.. Stevenson alone among his !
contemporaries hath caught the secret. Its humor
Gus, irpnical, haf-pathetic lament over his own
college career is altogether charming. lie too
was a student Of Edinburgh University, and ere
he launched his bark upon the high seas of life
padded about in "the little bubblins backwater of
the quadrangle" lie appears as relic of To- mer
generation, and with the burden Of more years
upon him than all his readers could have guessed
i looked for my name the other day in last
years book Of the Speculative. Naturally
enough. looked for ii near the end it was not
there, nor yet in the next column, so began to
think il had been dropped at press and when at |
last found 1t, mounted on the shoulders Of so
many successes and looking in that posture |
like the name OF a man OF ninety, l was con- |
scous Of some of the dignity Of years. This
kind Of dignity OF temporal procession is likely, |
with prolonged life, to become familiar, |
possibly less welcome but felt il strongly then,
it is strongly on NOW, and / am the more
embOldcncl to speak with my successors In the
tone of a parent and prsliser of things past.
Then he becomes photographed and laments
over the decay which had fallen upon this famous
university since the departure Of certain lean,
id1e, unpopular student whose presence was for
him the gist and heart of the whole matter. lie
writes of him as one "whose changing humors,
fine occasional purposes Of good Ainchng &C
reptance of evil. shiverings on wet. east-windy
morning journeys up to class infinite yawnings
during lecture and unquenchabl6 g,IsJo In :Sc
delights of truantry made up the sunshine and
shadow Of my college life lie had the blues,
and life at that young period seemed to him at
times not worth living, and hope was quite dead. |
Yet in the end to his wonder he escaped out of the